A Soldier's Fate
by Tenipuri Baby
Summary: Sanada finds a picture of Yukimura that saves him from being blown up by a bomb on a mission. Upon returning home his nephew, Sasuke introduces him to their new next-door neighbor.


**So I felt like writing something darker to take a break from "Dating Sanada." Don't worry, I'll still upload the other one. This is just an Alpha Pair one shot I wrote from a prompt.**

**Please Enjoy and Review!**

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**A Soldier's Fate**

Being a soldier is never easy. Staying alive is even harder, but was always the ultimate goal. If not for yourself, then for your family back home waiting for you.

His elderly grandfather and young nephew were the only family that, 25-year-old, Sanada Genichirou had left. He had to get home to them. Winning the war didn't really matter, surviving did.

"Sanada Genichirou!" An officer barked out. "The commander wants to see you at once."

"Yes, sir." Was his only reply. On the inside though Sanada groaned. Being a common soldier had its perks. You went to battle and if you survived, with sheer luck, you returned to the base.

Too bad Sanada wasn't a common soldier. He was one of the most skilled tacticians of his time, spoke eight languages, and seemed to have a knack for surviving. Therefore, whenever the commander needed a team to be assembled and led on a top secret mission he was always the one chosen.

"You needed to see me commander?" Sanada asked, formally as he approached the desk. It always angered him that the commanders and generals never went to battle. They let hundreds of soldiers die a day and still they did nothing.

The commander looked up. "Ah, Sanada. You are needed to lead a team behind enemy lines. We have discovered a breech in their security and this is the perfect opportunity to send our best soldiers in and secure their base."

Sanada nodded. This was going to be a dangerous mission but also an accomplished one if they succeeded. _If!_

Sanada didn't argue with the orders that were given to him. Disobeying orders were futile.

Plans were made and early the next morning, Sanada and his team set out.

The marshes and ditches they passed through exhausted and dirtied them. Keeping out of sight and undetected proved to be a more difficult task than Sanada had originally thought.

Even after they had arrived at the enemies base it was difficult to find the security breech that Sanada had been told would be simple to find.

Something was wrong. Sanada could feel it and he knew his team sensed it as well. Still, they did not question their orders and continued forward.

The breech into the base was through some sewer tunnels that seemed vaguely too exposed. There were no guards on duty anywhere near the entrance and it was eerily silent. Even the birds had hushed their singing. The quiet was unsettling.

"Something isn't right, Sanada," Yanagi Renji, his second-in-command, cautioned. "It almost looks deserted."

Marui Bunta looked around, tensly. "But it couldn't be. The enemy was here at this base only yesterday."

Jackal Kuwahara nodded. "They couldn't have evacuated that quickly to a new base, captain."

They spoke in low hushed voices. As if breaking the silence would be the cause of an explosion to some waiting catastrophe.

Sanada searched for any signs of life. None. At least not that he could see.

"I agree with Yanagi," Yagyuu Hiroshi whispered. "There's something gone wrong with the mission. There should have been guards patrolling the perimeter."

"We should abort mission," Niou Masaharu added, serious for once.

Sanada's eyes flashed. "Tarundora! Aborting in the middle of such an important mission, one that could win this war is the last thing we will do." He looked around at his team, and closest friends, sharply. "We just need to get inside the base. There may have been some things we overlooked but an entire army evacuating a base in 12 hours is impossible."

Yanagi nodded, reluctantly. Turning back now was cowardly. They were soldiers and giving their lives for a mission was what they were trained to do.

They hurried forward, Sanada directing Yanagi to take the lead. Through the sewers they hurried still detecting no noise.

"I found the entrance," Niou alerted the others.

It was a narrow passage that led upwards into the main hanger of enemy headquarters.

One by one his teammates slipped through the passage and disappeared through the top. Sanada was about to follow them when he noticed a photograph lying on a dry patch on the ground.

_That was random._

Curiously, Sanada picked it up. It was a tattered, worn one but what caught the young soldier's attention was the face peering up at him through the picture.

He was beautiful. The young man in the photograph was absolutely breath-taking even in a ruined picture. He had chin-length, navy blue hair and a graceful face. His eyes were two gorgeous blue orbs with a hint of mischief hidden in them. There was no other way to describe him but beautiful. Warmth and calm seemed to flow from the picture.

Sanada felt his breath catch in his throat. He hesitated from following his team into the hanger. The blunette's face kept him back somehow. And in that second…

An explosion came from the hanger, shaking the entire base.

Sanada shielded his face as he was blasted from of his feet. He hit the sewer wall, hard and fought for consciousness. The iron walls of the sewer seemed to be protecting him from the explosions that continued overhead in the base.

_'Yanagi,'_ he thought, desperately. _'My team, what happened?'_

His mind whirled as he realized that they had walked into a trap. Sanada's eyes widened. _The others!_ They couldn't be dead, they couldn't. The noise grew unbearably loud, Sanada's ears were ringing painfully and his arm hurt where he had landed on it. Blood slid down the side of his face. Sanada reached up and felt where it was coming from, a gash on the side of his head. It didn't hurt though. Was it the shock?

Then as quickly as it had happened, the noise stopped.

Sanada slowly made his way to his feet. He felt nauseous when he thought of the team.

"Renji!" he called out. It hurt to use his arm but he pulled himself up through the gap left of the narrow passage way, anyway. "Niou, Yagyuu, Marui, Jackal! Answer me!"

The hanger walls were covered in exploded bomb shells and debris. It had been a trap after all. The bombs had been set to go off when someone came in.

Sanada could see the bodies of only two of his friends. The others were nowhere to be seen. Red blood painted the floor and walls.

"Renji," Sanada kneeled down besides Yanagi's distorted body. The shock of what happened refused to pass. "Please!"

_What am I pleading for? He's dead!_

Sanada shook his throbbing head. No. It wasn't possible. They had just been talking minutes before.

He turned to the only other body not completely mangled by the explosions. _Marui._

The lone soldier bowed his head. What had happened? How had it suddenly gone horribly wrong?

There was nothing Sanada could do, except leave. Go back to headquarters, and leave them behind. It hurt!

Hurt to leave them, hurt to go back. Sanada had never felt more responsible for someone's death. If he had listened to them, if only he had aborted the mission while they were still alive.

But it was too late. It was over. And Sanada knew there was nothing he could do. He made his way back out of the hanger and walked out of the sewer alone. His wounds throbbed painfully, but still he walked on. Back through the trenches and across the marshes, towards headquarters…towards home.

Yanagi, Jackal, Marui, Niou, and Yagyuu. They had homes too and families waiting their return.

Sanada swore. Why? _Why me? Why did only I survive?_ Then he stiffened and remembered. The photograph was still crumpled in his grasp. Sanada knew he should have died as well, but the young man in the photograph had somehow prevented that from happening.

The blunette's expression in the photograph looked relieved. Relieved that he was still alive? _'Tarundora,' _Sanada thought. A picture did not have emotions.

Upon returning to headquarters he was debriefed, questioned, and bandaged. The commander didn't look at all sorry to hear that more soldiers had died, he only looked sorry that he had been wrong.

_'You weren't wrong, commander," _Sanada sighed. '_There was a security breech. But not from the enemy's side. The trap was set up from a traitor on the inside.' _He was too tired to care anymore.

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"Uncle! You're home!"

Sanada's nephew, Sasuke, jumped into his arms as soon as he walked out of the airport doors. "Hey, Sasuke! Did you behave for your grandfather while I was gone?"

"Of course," the child beamed.

Sanada Gen'emon smiled as he greeted his grandson. "Welcome back, Genichirou."

"Thank-you, Grandfather," Sanada smiled back, tiredly. He half-listened to Sasuke's mindless chatter and half-snoozed on the car ride back to the house.

Time had healed some wounds but memories were harder to heal. Being a soldier wasn't easy.

"…and he's really pretty and nice. He's your age too, Uncle," Sasuke was saying, excitedly. "Can I introduce you to him?"

"What?" Sanada asked, bluntly. He had no idea what Sasuke was talking about.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I was talking about our new neighbor next door. Weren't you listening? Torundoru, Uncle."

Sanada smacked him upside the head playfully, giving him a fond smile. "We have a new neighbor?" he asked as the car rolled into their driveway.

"Yes. Look! There he is!" Sasuke pointed out the window, as Sanada got out of the car and looked into the appointed direction.

He gaped. Sanada couldn't believe it! He was staring at the young man from the photograph that had saved his life.

_'Am I dreaming?' _Sanada wondered in awe. His mind flew back to what he had unconsciously been listening to in the car from his nephew. _'He said his name was Yukimura Seiichi, didn't he?'_

Yukimura Seiichi. Yes. It fit the pretty male perfectly.

"Hello Sasuke!" The blunette greeted.

Sasuke grinned. "Hello Yukimura-san, this is my uncle I was telling you about?"

Yukimura looked up and eyed Sanada's uniform. "You're a soldier."

It sounded as if Sasuke had forgotten to mention that important detail.

Sanada nodded. "I am. And you are?" he asked, just in case he had gotten the name wrong.

Yukimura held out a soft hand. "Yukimura Seiichi. It's a pleasure to meet you Sanada-san and thank-you for your service to our country."

The smile Sanada received was sincere and beautiful. "The pleasure is all mine."

"My father was a soldier, too. He passed away a couple years ago," Yukimura said, softly.

Sanada nodded in understanding. "War isn't pretty. Every soldier knows that, but there are some people worth protecting." He was still holding Yukimura's hand so quickly without thinking he lifted the hand to his lips and gave it a kiss glancing over it at Yukimura's quickly blushing face. _'He's so beautiful,' _Sanada thought.

Yukimura flushed with pleasure. "Um…Thank-you."

Sanada stiffened, realizing he had spoken his last thought out loud.

Sasuke was grinning madly, like he had never seen something more amusing in his life. "Can I say, 'You two are perfect for each other?'"

Sanada smacked his head again. "Forgive me for being so forward but I do mean it. I've learned it's best to not leave things off for tomorrow. We need to live in the now."

Yukimura smiled again. "My father used to say that. I look forward to getting to know you, Sanada-san."

"Call me Genichirou."

"Fine, but only if you call me Seiichi."

Sanada agreed. _'I owe Seiichi my life. And he doesn't even know it'_

Sasuke was smiling again. "And both of you can call me Sasuke." His uncle smacked him again. But the boy recognized it as one of thanks.

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**A/N: _I hope you enjoyed that. It made me kind of sad. I'M SO SORRY I KILLED MOST OF THE REGULARS. AND I'M SORRY AKAYA IS NOT IN IT. I just couldn't kill Akaya!_**

**_Pleas let me know what you thought of this._**


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